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PortaLogix co-owners, from left, Larry and Bryan Moravec and Jerry Vecchiarelli discuss options available on their new service truck with an attendee at the 2016 WWETT Show. The unit carries up to six units without a trailer. (Photo by Craig Mandli)

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Most have heard the age-old idiom, “If you want something done well, do it yourself.” That idea was on full display at the 2016 Water & Wastewater Equipment, Treatment & Transport (WWETT) Show, as a group of portable restroom industry veterans from western New York showed off their self-made PortaLogix portable restroom service truck. According to company co-owner Jerry Vecchiarelli, the unit incorporates effective features and solves problems faced by PROs.

“We’ve been in the porta-potty business for a long time, and know what the formula is for success,” he says. “We have used a lot of different service trucks over the years in our business, but never found one with all the features we wanted. That’s why we designed one ourselves.”

The truck allows a technician to service a route while carrying up to six units without a trailer. Placement of the 800-gallon waste tank is designed to distribute weight evenly on the chassis, while the flat 350-gallon freshwater tank is located in the bed of the truck, below the restroom payload. It is built on a 1-ton heavy-duty truck chassis, which doesn’t require a CDL to operate.

“The frame is made of durable aluminum to keep the weight down and allow the tech to carry more units and more waste,” says Vecchiarelli. “We like to think that the unit is allowing companies to do more with less.”

It comes with either a PTO-driven pump and high-pressure washdown pump unit, or a Honda prepackaged pump system. The bed has removable rails and multiple strapping points for various load configurations, and Thieman liftgates for easier loading. The flat-tank bed has a water level sight glass, V-channel baffles and two drain points on both the driver and passenger side for easier draining on grades. The baffles help prevent sloshing, making the vehicle more stable at highway speeds. A fully loaded unit weighs in at 11,500 pounds with empty tanks, and 17,000 pounds with tanks full. The company has offered the units for sale since November 2015, and according to Vecchiarelli, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.

“People really like that we have several chassis options available in both two-and four-wheel drive, and many other component options,” he says. “If they run their portable restroom businesses anything like we run ours, they are going to want to customize the service truck to suit their needs.”

According to Vecchiarelli, his company runs 30 PortaLogix trucks in its fleet, and the feedback from his service techs has been glowing.

“These trucks can carry more because they’re made lighter, which allows a tech to work all day on service runs,” he says. “In the long run, that is saving time and money.”

Vecchiarelli says that the 2016 WWETT Show exceeded his expectations, and he’s already planning to come back in 2017 with an updated truck offering more customization options.

“We knew we had a good product, and the interest we received at the show confirmed that,” he says. “It’s justifying knowing that the issues we were dealing with weren’t just ours, but shared by a lot of people in the industry. We designed this truck to help solve a lot of those.” 585/484-7009; www.portalogix.com.